Monday, October 26, 2009

A five-pound rainbow trout was fooled into taking the angler’s fly just moments before I snapped this shot. The action is taking place below a dam across Spring Creek on the site of an old grist mill at Rockbridge, Missouri.

The town of Rockbridge and the Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch, Inc., are essentially one and the same. Proprietors of Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch are the Amyx family, long time residents of southern Missouri. I was on the scene with some friends, allegedly to fish, but wound up doing more with a camera than I did with my meager inventory of fishing tackle. So what else is new?

The Amyx family started the Rainbow Trout Ranch operation in 1954. Since then it has enjoyed steady growth and increasing popularity — due, no doubt, to the Amyx family’s good habit of correctly interpreting the desires of their customers and tending to that business with excellence. That their customers have a desire to enjoy the great outdoors is an added bonus.

A county road runs through Rockbridge and morphs to a well tended and easily passable gravel road as you proceed west, just past the former Rockbridge General Store, which is now headquarters for the business. It is also a fine restaurant with a tackle and gift shop. Down this road from the mill, the falls, and the ranch headquarters is the Mackey Place, which serves as a guest residential facility. The Amyxes wisely left the fine old barn in place and keep it nicely painted red.

Time spent in this rural haven of tranquility is well spent. We shall visit again.

This well-preserved red barn on the Mackey Place at Rockbridge, Missouri, is a favorite stop for sightseers and old barn aficionados.

N O T E S:  
Nikon D300, Nikkor VR 70-400mm f4.5-5.6 D ED, on tripod all shots. Mark holding fish, ISO 200, 1/125 @ f4.8, plus 1.33 stops, focal length 78 mm. Mist and falls, ISO 200, 1/320 @ f6.3 focal length 52 mm. Barn ISO 200 1/500 @ f 11; Post processed with Photoshop CS4 Extended and Genuine Fractals print pro.

We proceed down the same gravel road and see two more barns, an old country school, a church-cemetery and a country store on our blog, Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind. Click here and take the trip:

Click the jump wings to see the previous Photo of the Week.

Click the camera for an index to every Photo of the Week.

Most of the time, there is more to the Photo of the Week story than can be told in an essay. And most of the time there are more pictures to be seen. Presuming that some folk will enjoy being privy to this trove of information, I have created a blog, “Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind,” where I am showing and telling “the rest of the story." There are also some blatantly commercial mentions of some of the things we do to earn our beans and taters. Click on the Weekly Grist logo and go to the blog.  — J. D.